Washington 44

Lady Potters 40

Afterwards, when the Potters’ eight-game winning streak was over, Bob Becker asked his Lady Potters what they learned tonight.

“Izzy piped up,” the coach said, meaning Izzy Hutchinson, a junior guard.

“She said, ‘We’ve made progress. We’ve grown as a team.’ And she’s absolutely right.”

Twenty-eight days ago, it was as bad as it gets. The Potters had lost three in a row going into Washington. In the first quarter there, they scored two points. In the second quarter, five points. At halftime, as the thundering Washington High pep band broke the sound barrier in old folks’ ears, it was 27-7. The final embarrassment: 48-25.

So, yes, progress tonight. A better team tonight. Beaten only in the last two minutes by the Mid-Illini Conference champions, now 24-4 for the season. Morton ends its regular season 19-10 and 9-5.

“We had an eight-game winning streak,” Becker said, “and we’re against Washington, the #2 seed in the whole sectional coming up, and we go toe-to-toe with them, and we have the lead late, and we end up losing, but . . .”

I interrupt here to say that for a quarter nobody deserved to win this one. As poorly as Washington shot, Morton handled the ball worse. The Potters’ turnovers, most often the result of careless ballhandling and passing, seldom seemed to cause damage because Washington’s shooters shot clankers. At the quarter, Washington 9-6.

Halftime, Washington 21-19, by which time the Potters had suggested a trend that by game’s end would hurt them badly. They had made only 3 of 7 free throws; all four misses came on two-shot chances.

In the second half, the Potters took the lead seven times, first on Tatym Lamprecht’s 3-pointer early in the third period, the seventh time on her curling layup that made it 38-36 with 3:37 to play.

A minute later, Washington went up 40-38. Morton gained its last tie on two Addy Engel free throws, 1:55 to play. As suggested by failures early, those free throws made Morton 8-for-17 from the line, a losing proposition in most games matching good teams. Four times the Potters missed both ends of two-shot opportunities.

So as these exercises in tension often do, this one came down to a short game, the last minute and 55 seconds.

From 40-all, Washington’s freewheeling ballhandlers found two shooters free for layups while Morton, struggling against the winners’ aggressive defense, twice failed on desperate drives in the paint.

Back to what the coach, Becker, was saying when he left off at “but . . .” Then, “It’s not like we have insurmountable things to deal with” before the regional starts Monday. “It’s not like we played our A game tonight. We played a B-minus, C-plus type game. . . . .In our regional, everybody’s going to have to play well to win.”

Monday at Limestone High School, it’s #5 seed Morton against #3 Peoria Notre Dame. The winner most likely will play Washington on Thursday.

I, for one, want to see Morton-Washington 3.0.

Morton’s scoring tonight: Lamprecht 9, Engel 8, Julia Laufenberg 6, Hutchinson 5, Ellie VanMeenen 4, Graci Junis 3, Abbey Pollard 3, Kerrigan Vandel 2.